This invention relates an accumulator device to be threaded over the partially dispensed closed end of a collapsible tube with a closable opening at the opposite end. The collapsible tube is best illustrated by the common tooth paste tube although many materials are stored and dispensed from such containers.
Collapsible cylindrical tubes with an openable closure at one end and sealed at the other end have long been a popular packaging device for thickened paste and doughlike materials which are a high viscosity. When these collapsible tubes were constructed of metal with little or no memory, efficient use of the tube presented fewer problems. As the tube was partially emptied, the closed end of the tube could be flatten and folded over on itself to at least partially prevent the paste from squeezing back toward the closed end when the packed portion of the tube is squeezed. However, for highly viscous rubberized compounds most of the pressure on the packed portion of the tube goes to a reopening the tube and forcing the viscous compound back into the emptied portion of the tube toward the closed end. In addition, the use of polymer plastic tubes with a memory and limited "creasing" ability along the edges of the tube makes clean emptying of the tube nearly impossible. The slide adapters described by D. R. Adams in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,248,012 are proposed to slide over the collapsible tube and flatten out the emptied portion as the contents are squeezed out. An object of the Adams device was to seal off the flattened portion of the tube, but the adapter tends to merely slide back along the empty portion of the tube when the packed portion of the tube is squeezed. Such devices are particularly ineffective with the highly viscous rubberized compounds which offer substantial back pressure tending to reopen the flattened tube.
The prior art devices do not satisfy the above needs nor attain the objects listed herein below.